New Leadership to Market Volvic Bottled Water

AMI Imports, LLC., today announced the appointment of Olivier Sonnois as the company's chief executive officer. AMI Imports is the exclusive sales and marketing agent in North America of Volvic® Natural Spring Water and is the newly formed subsidiary of AMI Holdings, a supplier of foods and beverages to the travel and leisure industry.

"Olivier's extensive experience in the most rapidly growing sectors of the food and beverage industry in North America, including 10 years in bottled water, will be instrumental in the development of AMI Imports," said Thierry Leduc, president of AMI Holdings. "We welcome his entrepreneurial spirit and valuable insight to our executive team."

Sonnois began his career with Groupe Danone, based in North America, in 1990. While at Danone, he held several senior positions with increasing responsibility within sales, marketing and planning for bottled water brands such as Evian and Dannon, in Canada and United States.

In 2000 he became vice president Strategy & Business Development with Acirca, Inc., a start-up, packaged organic food company based in New Rochelle, NY. Acirca was the marketer of the Walnut Acres® organic brand. Acirca was recently acquired by Hain-Celestial.

"Volvic is one of the world's leading brands of bottled water based on its natural purity, quality and consumer loyalty," said Sonnois. "AMI Imports has identified a unique opportunity in North America to evolve the Volvic brand based on these core strengths, particularly among the rapidly expanding segment of health- and wellness-oriented consumers who are premium disposed and appreciate the best tasting water."

Sonnois is a dual citizen of Canada and the EU and resides in Westchester, N.Y., where he will remain. AMI Imports will open an office in the New York metropolitan region to complement other AMI offices, already in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami and Tampa.